People of Christ - People of The Resurrection: Redeemed, Purified, Precious, Zealous
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RESURRECTION SUNDAY: REDEEMED
RESURRECTION SUNDAY: REDEEMED
13 Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; 14 Who gave himself in our place, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.
There is coming a time when all that we will hear from every man is the praise of God
A time when every tear is wiped away.
A time of the promised victory.
There is coming a time of when our eyes will behold our Lord.
This present life can be filled with many rough places. In our best efforts it seems that we walk right into some rough places, and you all know well that the seasons of life seem to come with plenty of storms…
Yet, I am learning not to dwell on such, but to look forward, to joyfully anticipate the appearing of my Great God Savior and Lord Jesus Christ.
What I am speaking of is a life in which the hope of my life is not in
money, pleasure, things, stocks, bonds, business, notoriety, recognition, title and so forth…
My hope, my anchoring - the joyful anticipation that forms, drives and sustains my pursuit is that God holds me in His hand - The life shaping hope of my life is a doctrinal truth that I belong to God. My identity demands my pursuit and not the other way around.
I belong to God, the God who holds me in His hand.
He holds me in His hands, for He is the God
14 Who gave himself in our place,
I believe that it is more than fitting for us to consider here who gave Himself in our place. We looked at it last week, and I want to continue to remind you of this truth.
He who gave Himself in your place was God the very God. The great I AM.
It was not a angel, a prophet of sorts, a good person…it was THE ALMIGHTY GOD who laid Himself down in your place.
This is why the Holy Spirit teaches us in the Word of God in Romans 8:33
33 Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth. 34 Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.
It is God who has declared you righteous because it is God who has made you righteous.
How did He make you righteous?
It is Christ that died, yes rather, that is risen again!
When we speak of our redemption, of our righteousness, make no mistake, we do not speak of our work, but of the great work of ALMIGHTY GOD in the death and resurrection of JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD.
Don’t you know the words of our LORD?
19 Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also.
We live, you live for one reason and one reason only: BECAUSE CHRIST JESUS OUR LORD LIVES.
Christ gave Himself in our place. How then could you die for your sin if Christ has already died in your place?
The debt is already paid. You cannot die for that which Christ has already died for.
You see, the Words of Scripture here are so wonderful, for it declares that Christ our Lord died in our place.
It does not say, as most Christians seem to think it says: that He died for your sin.
How many times have you heard it or even said it yourself:
What did Christ do upon the cross: “He died for my sins”
But thats not what it says.
Scripture says that Christ died in your place.
The fact that He died in your place means that the sins that you commit 10, 20, 30 years from now are already covered. The term used by scripture is one of completion - a doctrinal, legal statement of truth.
It is that fact that is set in placed and purposed to grip our hearts, change our minds and transform our lives.
You could not commit enough sin to remove Christ from your place upon the cross. It is finished. You are forgiven, you are redeemed.
I tell you that has to put at least a little pep in your step and joy in your heart to know that.
Oh to be so joyously mindful of He
“WHO GAVE HIMSELF FOR US”
The gave is a aorist active. That is to say that it is God who did it Himself. It is what He did without any help form you or I or anyone else. Further, we know from scripture that He did this before time began in the wisdom of His own determination.
Now don’t get the wrong idea about the determination of God. God has not chosen his elect in the same way that you or I might choose a backyard football team. God isn’t looking out finding the best players and He chooses one then Satan gets to choose. That is not what the determination of God means. God does not choose us because we are good. No, your election is not because you are good, but because God is good. As a matter of fact, none of God’s elective decrees occurred after you were born.
11 (For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;) 12 It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger.
Why was that the case? was it because the brothers were wrestling in the womb? No it was the election of him that called - the election of God.
The election of God speaks of Him who died in your place before you were ever born. It is built not upon the purposes or works of man, but the purposes and works of God.
13 But He answered and said, “Every plant which My heavenly Father did not plant shall be uprooted.
He gave Himself in our place:
The aorist - He did it once. He is not giving Himself in our place, He gave Himself in our place. If the one time sacrifice of Christ our Lord was not sufficient then nothing is and we sit here today hopeless…but praise be to God, the one time vicarious sacrifice of Christ our Lord was/is fully sufficient and we are here today with a certain and anticipatory hope in our Great God and Savior Jesus Christ.
And so we read:
10 For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.
28 So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.
14 For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified. (set apart)
Forever is not from now until you sin again. Forever is by definition continuous. In the Greek it is actually two words - the first is the for - it is the unto, into or toward…and the ever is continuous or continually. He has perfected you unto a continuous state of perfection - in other words, the power of the offering of Christ is never ceasing, or as we studied on Friday with the passover, Christ sacrifice has built over you a impenetrable covering.
He gave Himself once and the result is forever.
God gave Himself, not someone else, but Himself.
It was His plan, His perfect will, His sacrifice, His people - He gave Himself.
He gave Himself once in our place.
Does it say in everyones place? No - and there is not a verse of scripture that says such.
He gave HIMSELF IN OUR PLACE!
WHY?
So that He might buy us back…
that he might redeem us
To redeem us from a few bad things? No…
all iniquity,
Make note here of the clear dogmatism of the Word of God. It does not leave wiggle room.
Now you have to answer for yourself, did God mean it when He said that the sacrifice of His death was for ALL of your iniquity? Was there something that God was not aware of? Did He miss something or did He just use His phrasing loosley?
Surley we can’t say such things.
Christ sacrificial death was done once and in that He accomplished the fullness of your redemption from ALL iniquity.
The word redemption again is in the aorist tense and the middle voice.
The aorist tense speaks of a completed action
The middle voice says that He redeemed us for HIMSELF.
You must understand this if you are to get the joy and the peace and the rest of the promise which is yours…
Christ not only redeemed you, But Christ who is God the very God, redeemed you for HIMSELF.
A understanding of such a profound truth demands ones delving into the love of God.
It would have been good news if God would have merely provided a payment for your sin debt.
But that isn’t what He did…that is the fullness of what He did:
God died in your place in order that He might buy you back for Himself!
GOD DIED IN MY PLACE TO BUY ME BACK FOR HIMSELF FROM ALL INIQUITY!
Nothing can touch me. I am redeemed, I am passed over. Made to be in the safe house of God Almighty, so that nothing can separate me from the love of Almighty God. Absolutely nothing.
And So God did this not only to redeem me from all iniquity, but also to..
14and purify (again that is a aorist: meaning it is a completed action.)
That means not that He is purifying you but that He has purified. How else are you going to deal with Colossians 1
21 And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled 22 In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:
You see congregation, it is so easy to spend our time dwelling on the filth in which we live. To see that filth rub off on us, and to be convinced that we just don’t look pure. Yet the truth remains that we are. Not because of what we have or have not done, but because we are in Christ who Himself is without spot or blemish, and He redeemed us, and…
Titus 2:14
purify unto himself a peculiar people,
A peculiar people. That peculiar is hard to get the fullness of what is being said. It is a people of ones own choosing or a people of ones own possession. Perhaps another word that the translators could choose from would be a precious people. A people of great cost, whom God has purchased and now holds as His own, for His own pleasure, in the palm of His hand, He love them with a everlasting love.
Christ died for you, to have and to hold you as His own forever.
It appears from the text that your value unto God is of the same value that He sees Himself, for that is the price that He paid for you.
Isn’t that truth the very reason that we rejoice and stand amazed at the love and grace of God? Isn’t that why we sing, “Oh how wonderful, Oh how marvelous And my song shall every be: Oh how marvelous, Oh how wonderful, Is my Savior’s love for me”?
And so, we see, that the poeple of God are a
redeemed people,
a purified people,
a precious people:
Titus 2:14
zealous of good works.
Uh oh….now please don’t let the human mind here trip you up and bring you back to “self”. We have been rejoicing in the great God - in the wonderful, marvelous completed works of God in you. We have been studying of the blessed and certain hope…the anticipated glory of His appearing, and the fact that Jesus Christ Himself is not only the one who gave Himself for He, but that He is the very one who spoke the worlds into existence. That He who spoke all things into existence, and gave Himself in your place has redeemed us, purified us, and made us a special, a precious people unto Himself…and immediately following all of that we read zealous for good works and our minds all of a sudden go to all of the things that we must do….you know…feed the hungry…give money to the poor…all good things not to be torn down in any way, but they cannot be placed into this verse. This verse isn’t the right context to paint christians as whatever activist standpoint is deemed as good. Such activity is not this context of “good works”…sure they are by products or fruit of one who loves the Lord, but that is not the context of our text.
It should be obvious, if one loves the Lord then they are gracious, compasionate, kind and so forth…
But in our present context, the good works for which we are zealous are the good works of Jesus Christ. It is the good works of Jesus Christ, what He has done, what He has accomplished that consumes us with a overriding passion that has us eager to see it all come to pass.
We are zealous for the good work of Christ our Savior. It is the same context as Ephesians 2:8-10
8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto/upon good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
What good works do we walk in? The good works of Jesus Christ.
How can one take the context that is speaking so clearly upon the great works of the Almighty God, and then interpret the good works as works of our own? I don’t thing you can.
Read verse 13 and 14 again and labor in your reading to hold that zealous of good works in the context of the declaration of God. It begins with the joyous anticipation of the great blessed hope that is the gloryous appearing of the great God and Savior Jesus Christ…it moves to the description of His work and concludes with we a precious people unto Him who are zealous, burning for, with great zeal, greatly contending for that work, His work, the good work accomplished in Christ Jesus.
13 Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; 14 Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.
This is the foundation of the redeemed. It is the hope and the zeal of the resurrected ones. It is why we live looking for the glorious appearing of Jesus Christ our Savior.
You are redeemed
Redeemed from all iniquity.
You are purified unto Christ, Unto God Himself
You are precious
And He that Holds you as redeemed, purified and precious shall appear in all the fullness of His work with Him, for that is our hope, and our zeal. - Amen.
